Warren T. Claim:
Well, after having my first day in an automatic Daf I can safely say I would rather spend 9 hours driving a greasy stick up my own backside than an auto again. Absolutely lethal. Roundabouts take on a new level of fear you can only imagine. Glad its only a rigid because if it was a wagon and drag I would still be waiting there now. Apparently it has a max train weight of 30 tons! Heaven help whoever has to drive one at that weight. Also engine braking is just none existent causing many wobbley backside monents (for me and the truck) If this is what we will all be driving in 10 tears I might just become a motorcycle courier or lion tamer…its safer!
They’re fun on roundabout’s aren’t they? You see your gap, floor it, it takes 5 seconds to start moving, by which time your gap has gone and you end up pulling out on some poor soul It’s even worse when you’re loaded
Or, as i do everyday, when you have a full tanker of milk, and the milk slops forward, the git changes up a gear, then when it slops to the back it changes back bloody down
Regarding the actual topic, i was taught in a 4/4 with range change, and since then all the manuals i’ve had at work have had both range and splitter, which is a god send when you’re loaded. so give me both anyday
Warren T. Claim:
Well, after having my first day in an automatic Daf I can safely say I would rather spend 9 hours driving a greasy stick up my own backside than an auto again. Absolutely lethal. Roundabouts take on a new level of fear you can only imagine. Glad its only a rigid because if it was a wagon and drag I would still be waiting there now. Apparently it has a max train weight of 30 tons! Heaven help whoever has to drive one at that weight. Also engine braking is just none existent causing many wobbley backside monents (for me and the truck) If this is what we will all be driving in 10 tears I might just become a motorcycle courier or lion tamer…its safer!
i used to have a daf cf 85 410 8 wheeler auto with no override…the number of times i tried to get out of driving it and be given one of the old fodens was unreal, seriously i used to have a wobbly backside moment with them, and when we were fully frieghted at 32 tons pulling away from roundabouts took forever you just had to go for it and look like a tube for cutting up a car that was on the otherside of the roundabout. i finally got it through to them that i wanted the 02 foden instead of an 08 daf.
also on landfill sites the autobox is just useless, the amount of times you got stuck was unreal, if u didnt get stuck once a day you were doing well. they even had auto boxes on the ejector trailer trucks, everytime they tipped they got stuck and they were 6x4 double drive cf 85 480s.
The manual’s on the MAN’s we have are actually ok, as long as you dont forget to switch it back to Auto before you stop at a junction/roundabout and stall it
Not so… The last three “real life” Class-2 vehicles I have driven (HINO, FODEN, DAF) all had 16-speed boxes… The Foden and DAF were 4-over-4 with a split on every gear. The HINO had the awful “slapover” with a split on every gear - its splitter switch being where you normally find the range-change switch on a 4-over-4.
I take it your a tipper man then?
gogzy:
we had some with manual overrides but they were about as good as a chocolate teapot.
ive yet to drive an auto that im happy with,
I was much the same as you mate until I drove a Premium with the opticruise, it behaved itself and it wasn’t a tnuc to reverse like I find the dafs and mans to be this was nice and smooth and although I didn’t have control over the clutch pedal as there obviously wasn’t one, I felt in control of the speed and overall reverse, unlike on the others I mentioned where its jerky as hell and if you aren’t lurching back at speed, you’re rolling forward
gogzy:
we had some with manual overrides but they were about as good as a chocolate teapot.
ive yet to drive an auto that im happy with,
I was much the same as you mate until I drove a Premium with the opticruise, it behaved itself and it wasn’t a tnuc to reverse like I find the dafs and mans to be this was nice and smooth and although I didn’t have control over the clutch pedal as there obviously wasn’t one, I felt in control of the speed and overall reverse, unlike on the others I mentioned where its jerky as hell and if you aren’t lurching back at speed, you’re rolling forward
gogzy:
we had some with manual overrides but they were about as good as a chocolate teapot.
ive yet to drive an auto that im happy with,
I was much the same as you mate until I drove a Premium with the opticruise, it behaved itself and it wasn’t a tnuc to reverse like I find the dafs and mans to be this was nice and smooth and although I didn’t have control over the clutch pedal as there obviously wasn’t one, I felt in control of the speed and overall reverse, unlike on the others I mentioned where its jerky as hell and if you aren’t lurching back at speed, you’re rolling forward
Daf auto’s will for some reason roll backwards on a hill when they are in drive and vice versa in reverse which makes reversing up a loading bay ramp an interesting experience. You end up taking plenty of unintentional shunts and look like a proper novice!
gogzy:
we had some with manual overrides but they were about as good as a chocolate teapot.
ive yet to drive an auto that im happy with,
I was much the same as you mate until I drove a Premium with the opticruise, it behaved itself and it wasn’t a tnuc to reverse like I find the dafs and mans to be this was nice and smooth and although I didn’t have control over the clutch pedal as there obviously wasn’t one, I felt in control of the speed and overall reverse, unlike on the others I mentioned where its jerky as hell and if you aren’t lurching back at speed, you’re rolling forward
Reverse Manual is your friend
It wasn’t for me
No way, i love the manual reverse, keeps you at a nice, steady pace. No matter how hard to push ythe accelerator, it stays at that speed. I think it’s amazing .
It’s even worse when you’re loaded 
